Why can they not complete simple tasks? Why do they get so offended by simple criticism? Why do they have so little self-control?

The fiasco of the four suspended cricketers in India gives us a glimpse of Australia in the 21st century.

Despite the frantic efforts of Cricket Australia, the captain, and the coach to justify them, the penalties applied to the "fractious four" cricketers in India seem ridiculously harsh.

To disqualify 25 per cent of your squad from selection when the team is performing as poorly as at any time in modern history can only intensify the misery of this Indian debacle.

There was a time when sportsmen would not dare to challenge a team's authority

However, what those players had been asked to do was so simple, it's beyond belief that they couldn't have completed the task of filling out a form to provide feedback of the team's pathetic performances.

Unfortunately, it's a symptom of a current generation. Where did we go wrong?

When did we let kids make their own rules and decide their own punishments?

There was a time when sportsmen would not dare to challenge a team's authority.

Coaches, and captains were autocratic figures who spoke in stern, harsh tones and could never be questioned or challenged.

It was a reflection of society itself, where teachers, policemen and parents maintained society's order and enforced the discipline.

It could be a cruel system, no doubt, especially when corporal punishment was applied in the schools and the home, but it seemed to work.

The biggest problem in those days was the oppression, humiliation and ostracism of minority groups and the weaker, vulnerable members of society, but we didn't appear to have anywhere the negative social and discipline issues that we have now.

The Four were either too lazy, too indifferent, or wanted to make their own statements by refusing to provide feedback to the team.

However, to humiliate them by suspending them for a minor indiscretion will not solve any inherent problems.

Neither will captain Michael Clarke's glib rhetoric about them understanding "that the game doesn't owe them anything", solve any underlying issues.

Clarke's propaganda smacked of a spokesman for Cricket Australia frantically trying to contain a controversy that was clearly getting out of hand.

Ironically, it was not that long ago that Clarke was seen as a player who did his own thing at the expense of team focus.

Can Cricket Australia change the attitudes of a generation of selfish, undisciplined youth?

Not with draconian, knee-jerk penalties.

The social issue reflected by this incident is much more serious.

Discipline starts in the home, is reinforced in the schools, is magnified in sports, and maintained by our social mores.

Discipline requires some degree of sacrifice and self-control, that greatest of all human strengths.

Sadly, that collective self-control, the willingness to make sacrifices and to adhere to disciplines that sometimes seem unfair, are qualities that we are rapidly losing.

CORNESY can be heard with Stephen Rowe on 1395, FIVEaa, 4pm-7pm weekdays.